Category: Volume 2

The internal structure of our ship is often important, unless it’s so small as to have little more than a room or two. Characters need to move between locations such as the bridge, cargo, engine room, and quarters. We don’t Read More …

World builders in visual mediums will need to consider both internal and external ship structure, but authors may largely ignore this. Absent a schematic or picture, readers typically struggle to picture what we intend. This is true of other elements Read More …

To add realism to our space adventures, we should consider that all destinations are orbiting something. Moons orbit planets, planets orbit suns, and solar systems orbit their galaxy’s center. If two objects are orbiting the same body, such as planets Read More …

Engines fall into two basic categories: those designed for space travel and those designed for atmospheric conditions. Both kinds already exist, but it is mostly engines intended for space travel which get mentioned in our work. There appears to be Read More …

The previous two chapters focused on how to determine travel times using the sort of locomotion available on Earth-like worlds. Space travel falls under two categories: existing technology from Earth and invented technology. As I’m not a rocket scientist, the Read More …

Where to start depends on our goal. If trying to determine the travel time between two places, follow the steps outlined in “Ship Speeds.” You’ll need to decide on the distance first, then whether the trip is along a coast, Read More …

It’s beyond the scope of this book to describe all the personnel needed on a ship, but in a fantasy world, we have new humanoid species and occupations that can be added to the typical crew from Earth vessels. This Read More …

On Earth, if a ship in the Age of Sail has weapons, it has cannon, which requires gunpowder, which in turn means our world almost certainly has guns. If we don’t want guns on our fantasy world, then no cannons Read More …